It's Complicated
by yuriloveisbest
Summary: Sakura went missing, but now she's back and something major has changed about her. Tons of drama, mystery, angst, hurt/comfort, romance and more is sure to follow! NO OFFICIAL PAIRING decided YET so it should be fun ;3
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing! I'm making no money off of this! Everything belongs to its respected owners! Enjoy~

"Face it, she's been missing for months, we'll never find her!" Kiba yelled angrily.

"We'll find her, we have to!" Naruto yelled back.

"Both of you calm down, you're just being troublesome," Shikamaru sighed as he put another stick on the fire.

"But we've been at it for two weeks, and weeks before on the last mission! We're never gonna find her!" Kiba yelled. Akamaru climbed onto his friend and master's lap to calm, which did help, but it didn't completely sooth Kiba's rage.

Though who could blame him? Sakura had been missing for three months now. She was a very valuable person in their village, and the fact that Orochimaru could even take her was remarkable considering her smarts and strength, it had to have been planned and executed very well. Tsunade had been sending anyone they could spare, and even some they couldn't, constantly to track them down and bring back Sakura. Now, for the third time, it looked like they'd b going home empty handed.

"I know, but it's our mission. Besides she was our friend, we can't just give up on her. There's no telling the torture she's being put through, so she needs us to save her," Shikamaru said as he lit a cigarette, ignoring the glare from Ino.

"There's no way in hell I'll abandon her again," Ino muttered as she stared at the fire. All the boys thought she "officially" came as their medic, but they thought her real reason was to be around the group of boys she was rumored to like. Although she was assigned to the team to be the medic, she could've said no. She had a real reason for coming, and a reason for going on as many rescue teams as possible. But she'd never admit it to anyone, she could barely admit it to herself…

"But-" Kiba started, but he was cut off by Kakashi bursting through the trees into their camp.

"Neji thinks he's found her," Sai said blankly.

"Really?" Naruto yelled as he jumped up. "Where?"

"This way," Sai said with his usual fake smile. He led the boys and Ino back to where Neji was waiting…more like, staring at a tree.

"I can barely make it out, but she's down there," Neji said.

"Down where?" Shikamaru asked.

Neji answered by tapping the tree, which made a door appear. "It's well hidden, I almost didn't notice it," he said.

"Let's go!" Naruto yelled.

"We can't just run down there," Sai said. "We need a plan, and we know where she is so we don't need to rush."

"No, we have to rush, they're talking about moving to the next base," Kiba said.

"You can hear them?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"Kind of, I keep missing words but they're definitely moving within an hour," Kiba answered.

"So it's now or never," Shikamaru said. The others nodded in agreement and the group silently entered the tree leading down to Orochimaru's secret base.

It was easy getting in, most of the guards were preoccupied with moving equipment and other valuable things, and those that noticed the group were quickly and quietly taken out by some means. Neji and Kiba both used their special senses to track down Sakura and to avoid large groups of guards. After what seemed like days of sneaking (it was really only about 20- 30 minutes), they found the room Sakura was being held in. Neji couldn't see her very well, and Kiba said her scent was changed somehow, but there was no turning back now. They carefully opened the door to a poorly lit room that smelled of blood- Kiba and Akamaru couldn't even enter the room because the scent was so strong.

Naruto was the first to enter, but what he saw turned him whiter than a ghost. The rest, minus Kiba and Akamaru, followed only to be hit by pure shock. They found Sakura, but how she looked now nearly doubled them over. She was chained to a bed, blood everywhere, most of it coming out of the many wounds that covered her body. A few knives and other small weapons were even still puncturing her ghostly white skin. She was pale before, but now she looked like a corpse. The only bit of color she had (minus the blood, of course) was from the bruises that also covered her body. Her hair was matted with blood, and some of it looked to have been pulled right out of her head.

It took them a few moments of staring to notice her move ever so slightly. Naruto rushed over to her, nearly sobbing by this point, to try to unchain her. He fumbled with the chains before realizing they were locked. Sai calmly walked over and unchained her. Naruto held her close and sobbed into her hair, getting covered in her blood but either not noticing or just not caring.

"Naruto, you have to let me heal her," Ino said barely above a whisper. He reluctantly let Ino get close enough to examine Sakura. "Her wounds are too severe for me to handle by myself, but I'll take care of the worst so we can get her back alive," Ino said as she started to heal the worst of the wounds while carefully pulling out the weapons.

"Guys, they're coming for Sakura, we gotta leave now," Kiba said as loudly as he dared.

Ino let Naruto take Sakura and they all silently rushed towards the exit. Neji led the group with Naruto and Ino close behind, and the others alternating between being in front and being behind while taking out any guards they needed. They didn't stop once they exited the base, they continued until they were sure no one was following them.

Ino then continued to heal as many of the wounds as she could, but she noticed something weird…she couldn't quite tell what it was, but there was something…could it be? No, that was impossible!...Right? Oh, she had never hoped she was wrong as much as she hoped right now. She glanced at Kiba, the look on his face almost confirming her suspicions. She glanced to Neji, who had just about the same look as Kiba, only he seemed more confused. She couldn't wait to get back to the village to have Tsunade prove her wrong and heal Sakura and everything would go back to normal.

End Of Chapter 1! Hope you like it, I'm sure most of you already have guesses as to what Ino suspects, so send me your guess in a review and I'll let you know if you're right either by PM or by uploading the next chapter~ ;3 Ah and I already have the next full chapter written and the 3rd going so the more reviews I get the faster I'll upload the next chapter! Thanks everyone for reading, bye for now~


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing! I'm making no money off of this! Everything belongs to its respected owners! Enjoy~

Chapter 2

"We shouldn't stay here long, Sakura will need more help or she could die before we get back. Looks like we'll have to pull an all-nighter," Shikamaru said with a sigh. Ino looked at him confusedly when she noticed he didn't mention how "troublesome" it would be…

"Let's go then!" Naruto yelled as he picked up Sakura quickly.

"Be more gentle, idiot!" Ino yelled. "She's not fully healed, you might hurt her more!"

"Both of you be quiet, we're still in enemy territory," Sai said with his fake smile.

"Let's just go already," Kiba said with a groan.

The group silently agreed and left for the leaf village, Konoha. Everyone was quiet on the way back, even once they were in the fire country. Perhaps they just didn't want to risk the enemy hearing, but the most likely reason was that none of them wanted to talk about what they had seen in that room…

They were greeted at the gate by Tsunade herself. When she saw Sakura, a large mix of emotions crossed her face, relief, joy, terror, sorrow, hopefulness, and determination…even a look of love. She took Sakura to the hospital, the group following close behind. Tsunade and Ino took Sakura to the ICU (intensive care unit) and left the others in the waiting room. A few hours later, Tsunade went to the waiting room to update the boys. But now the small group that had delivered her turned into a large group consisting of most of the kids from the old teams plus a few of the teachers. They took up the entire waiting room!

"Grandma, is she…" Naruto started to ask, dread thick in his voice.

"She's gonna be fine, but for now she's gonna need a lot of rest. She probably won't wake up for a few days, maybe even longer. She'll be under constant watch by nurses and doctors, and under constant protection in case Orochimaru tries to come for her. Any volunteers?" She asked. Every hand and voice raised up, along with a few mentioning how "this or that person will want to but they are not there for whatever reason."

"I knew Sakura had a lot of friends, but I never expected this," Tsunade said with a quiet chuckle.

"Well they say that you never know what you have till it's gone, only this time we got it back so we're gonna protect it!" Someone said, though Tsunade couldn't tell who, it sounded like Lee though.

"Alright then I'll set up a schedule, but don't forget you all have your own missions to do too, so behave and no complaints or you'll get sent out for a month!" Tsunade said with a triumphant grin. She heard various agreements, along with lots of nodding and saluting. She dismissed most of them for the day, minus the team who brought her back. "I want a full debriefing in one hour, but we'll do it here and no paperwork this time. I'm gonna be too busy tending to Sakura and some other critical patients today."

"Yes, ma'am," Shikamaru said with a quiet sigh and mumbling "troublesome" under his breath. The group sat in the waiting room, trying to wrap their heads around what had happened that day. Had it only been one day since they brought Sakura back? The wait had seemed like a week…

~ONE WEEK LATER~ X3

Tsunade had worked the schedule perfectly so that there were no full breaks in the shift changes, and there were no overly long shifts so no one would fall asleep on the job, and best of all (according to her) no shift interfered with missions and allowed plenty of time for everyone to get sleep and food.

Sakura was improving, but she still hadn't woken up. She had once flat lined, but Tsunade revived her quickly so no additional damage was done. Tsunade predicted that Sakura would wake up in a day or two, so she had to keep as many people as possible away so as to not terrify Sakura when she first woke up. After all, she may not even remember anything, so an overwhelming group drilling her for answers or attention would be…well Tsunade wasn't going to risk that.

Ino barely left Sakura's side. She wouldn't allow anyone else to bathe or change Sakura's clothes or bandages. She only left when Tsunade forced her to, but she would come back the minute she was allowed. Tsunade caught her more than once sleeping overnight in the chair beside Sakura's bed. And even though Tsunade knew she shouldn't let Ino be so close, Ino would look like a lost pet when she was kicked out so she always ended up giving in and letting Ino stay.

Tsunade, Ino, and Kiba were keeping a secret about Sakura from the others, but no one could figure out what. Those who noticed the trio was keeping a secret tried to get it out of them, but with no success. Rumors spread about what it was, and those rumors varied from pregnancy to Sakura being turned into some kind of monster (and some of those rumors were pretty out there).

Naruto almost managed to get Ino to tell him, but she managed to get away before she completely gave in. Since then, she made it a point not to be alone with Naruto, especially not alone with other people who wanted to know the secret.

~TWO DAYS LATER~

Ino sat down in the chair beside Sakura's bed with a heavy sigh. She had hoped Sakura would have woken already, but Sakura still remained sleeping. Ino wished she could talk to Sakura- about what happened while she was kidnapped, about what she would do now that she…or even about how things used to be when they were kids, or after they both became medics, or ANYTHING! She just wanted to talk to the person she cared about most…

A small, quiet noise startled Ino out of her thoughts. "Sakura?" Ino asked as she stared into Sakura's big green eyes. Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come out. Sakura then suddenly sat up, only to wince as the various cords holding her kept her from going to high. "Shhh, don't worry, you're safe here, just relax," Ino said in a soothing voice. She helped lower Sakura onto the bed and smoothed out her hair.

"Wh…" Sakura tried to ask but too many questions were trying to come out at once that she couldn't put them to words.

"We rescued you and brought you back here. We've been searching for you ever since you went missing, and we finally found you. You're being protected constantly to make sure the HE can't take you back. You're safe, so you can relax," Ino explained.

Sakura slowly relaxed, but she continued to stare at Ino. Ino stared back, mostly examining Sakura's skin which was now close to its normal color and had minimal bruises, and remarkably less bandages than she had. She looked like an injured person now rather than a mummy. She noticed an injury on Sakura's stomach was bleeding again, not surprising considering the jerking movement she just did.

"Let me heal that," Ino said as she reached out, she watched Sakura to make sure she wasn't scaring the poor girl. She sealed up the injury and re-bandaged it again. "There, now just relax, I'll be here all night if you need me."

Sakura didn't respond, but she did relax and fall back asleep. Ino sighed and slumped back down on the chair. Her last thought before she fell asleep was, "I hope we can talk more tomorrow, but at least she finally woke up."

End of chapter 2! Hope you like it~ Next chapter is the big news! Though you probably can already tell what it is, though I'm probably gonna throw in another big secret just to keep it mysterious and fun~ ;3 Keep reading to find out~ Please R&R and I'll update at the next chance I get~ Bye for now!


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